Clypse

Appearance: Thick dark-green moss that forms at the water-line around mangroves.

Early Stages (Growth): Covers the first foot or two of the mangrove and leeches some nutrients from the tree.

Moderate Stages (Growth): Usually takes a few decades to reach these stages. Leeches most nutrients from mangroves and causes tree-decay, allowing Clypse to infest inside the mangrove. Outer-appearance doesn't differ from Early Stages.

Later Stages (Growth): Most of the tree is decayed and broken apart with Clypse infested on the inside and outside. When the mangrove reaches a certain point of deterioration, it's bark and branches break apart, allowing Clypse to become waterborn.

Waterborn Stages: Waterborn Clypse is Clypse floating on driftwood. This is how Clypse spreads throughout mangroves. Extremely deteriorated Clypse-infested mangroves create immobile pools filled with waterborn Clypse. These are called dead-pools.

Death: When Clypse begins to die, it becomes very slimey. When Clypse does die, it turns into a very white dried moss.

Toxin: When Clypse uses nutrients, it produces a toxic chemical byproduct. This toxin is often gaseous, but when Clypse is under-water, it's released into the water. The concentration of the toxin depends on the exposed surface-area. Moderate concentrations produce a very light yellow haze. High concentrations produce a thick orange haze.

Transmission: The effects of Clypse can be transmitted through inhaling the toxin, drinking the toxin in water, or eating Clypse. Minor effects can be caused by ingesting dead Clypse.

Removal: Changes in temperature, access to water, access to sun-light, or by removing trees (usually by fire). These methods often affect all nature when put into effect however.

Removal by Fire: Removal by Fire can causes harmful effects, allowing Clypse to burn into thick clouds of highly-concentrated toxins that travel for miles before dispersing. Isn't effective against waterborn Clypse.

Harvesting: Clypse is harvested by plying the bark off the tree. Scraping the Clypse off releases concentrated toxins. Clypse is usually harvested in early stages, but a harvester may accidentally ply bark off a mangrove revealing moderate stages of Clypse, creating more surface area and releasing more toxins. In moderate stages, released toxins inside the mangroves may condense into a pure form of the toxin. Harvesters can drill at the bottom of these trees and syphon it. Dead Clypse is scrapped or plyed off mangroves and collected from waterborn Clypse. Late-Stages and Dead-pools are scarcely ever sought after, as it becomes too dangerous. The exception would be dead-pool water, if collected from a run-off far away from the dead-pool.

-The adventurers are to investigate the cause of an abandoned settlement or shipwreck of which unusual deaths are the cause.

-The adventurers are captured by a group of bandits along with a number of other prisoners that are being lead through a Clypse-infested area, only to find that the bandits have gone mad and turn on one another. Taking the opportunity to their advantage, they and the other prisoners must find an escape while coping with the effects of the Clypse.

-The adventurers are paid to escort a Clypse harvester to a Clypse infested area, but things turn bad when the harvester accidentally removes the bark from a moderately-infested tree, causing the harvester to fall ill. When the adventurers set up camp to give the harvester a moment of much-needed rest, things turn worse due to a warring native-tribe moving into the area with intentions to kill and loot the adventurers.

-The adventurers are asked to go deep down into the depths of an ancient temple that exists beneath a dead-pool, famed to have one of the only accessible concentrated clypse-infested water-sources, to retrieve a bottle from the dead-pool run-off.

-The adventurers look into a series of killings of similar nature, caused by fast-acting vile poisons. They eventually discover the poisons are linked back to a very particular mangrove forest with a clypse-infested forest hidden deep within, with a band of assassains behind contract-killings. The band of assassains are well-known respected people, so they must be taken out privately. The best place to do it is to ambush them on their return to the forest.

Detailed Information

Information is to be re-written soon.

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An interesting substance and pretty darn dangerous in the right circumstances. The signs and plot hooks pulled it all up for me.

Although I am curious if you could smoke or otherwise use the dried portions for something. Was thinking it would be more stable in its dried form and it was missing a use there. Additionally, how could I resist the thought of collecting some in pottery jugs with an ignition source and tossing them over the wall to burst into a chemical gas attack.

(For readability, I would prefer it broken up a bit so that it is easier to reference if I was to use it. It is difficult to slog through the large paragraphs to find, say what a high concentration would do and its separate stages of growth etc.)

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read first, and to start off with my response, I'll just respond to the last part first. As for the readability, I totally understand. I actually didn't notice how long these paragraphs were until I re-visited this, but now that I do, I'll fix that up right away. Thank you for mentioning that too.

The dried form as mentioned is typically used by being ground into a powdered form and snorted or consumed as a minor hallucinogen. As for smoking it, I'll add a brief piece on that now. Thank you for pointing that out.

Also, yes, that would be an interesting and effective use for sure. One could use the living form, which will remain alive for up to 72 hours after it's been removed, which would prove most lethal. The reason it would be lethal is because in it's living form, it's still able to produce the by-product, so when burned, it releases these toxins at an alarming rate. The dried form wouldn't be nearly as effective but would likely still invoke some minor delusions and paranoia.

I'll get onto writing more into it, and organizing some.
Thank you for taking the time to read through Strolen.

The Good: great detail on this sub! It is obvious that you put a lot of thought into this plant, and the plot hooks are great.

The Bad: too much detail! I don't often recommend trimming a piece down, but you've given me far more than I ever needed to know about this plant. Remember your target audience. A harried game master, looking to add some quick detail to his/her world, is not going to want to wade through all the details that a biologist might. A game master is going to want to know the basics: what is this thing and what does it look/feel/taste/etc like? Where do I find it? How can I use it? For these questions, the most useful sections are "Signs" and "Plot Ideas" -- which are short, straight and to the point.

The Ugly: I'm glad that you broke the sub down into lots of paragraphs. Why is there a leading "-" in front of all of them, though? Usually, those denote lists of information, and are appropriate in the Plot Ideas and Signs section.

Suggestions: Trim it down a little, or rewrite your "In General" section to give all the basics up front. Basically, put the information we need all in one place.

Regarding the bad and the ugly bit, I'll be rewriting it a little. Perhaps I could create two distinct sections, one that goes in detail, and one that's more to the point. This will help everyone navigate with more ease. I think I'll do that actually, and hopefully it makes things much more readable. The "-" 's were just a quick way of separating core ideas done as a minor edit afterwards, but soon to be fixed.

I'll take your suggestions and rewrite it up, hopefully in a more concise and easy-to-use manner.

With the reformat it is definitely easier to find and read! Good work with the changes. I must still agree it might be a little too heavy on the information but perhaps not. I think what is missing is a unique voice that most subs have. It is so drenched in detail that your creative style isn't coming out in it. Perhaps that is what I am sensing. But it is a great idea, just missing a little flair. I think each submission here requires fifteen pieces of flair. ;)

Thank you, I'm glad it's become more more useable.
Hm, I'd be inclined to disagree that the information was too heavy. Perhaps it would be on the heavy side for any irrelevant life-form, but I think the amount of information is appropriate considering that this life-form has the ability to drive questing. That'd just be my personal opinion though. As for a unique voice, I agree. This is more put-forth as listed information (which is what I was going for). How would you suggest I develop a more unique voice though? Hm, thank you. What things do you think could flair it up?

Alright, on the second pass you've condensed a mass of information into a submission that is a lot more readable, and therefore more usable. Well done! I will second what Strolen said, however -- now that you've got the info-dump tamed, it's time to pretty her up. The last time I wrote a sub with this many details (details I just HAD to leave in, because they were important parts of how the organism worked), I needed to find a way to present those pieces without my audience getting bored. In writing, this advice is often given as "show, don't tell." Try to show me some of this information through the eyes of someone experiencing it, instead of just telling me about it.

Here's the sub that I struggled with: Memory Moths. It has huge amounts of detail, and I had to work really hard to keep it engaging.

Thank you, I'm glad it's a lot easier to read through. Alright, I see what you're getting at. In that case, I'm pretty happy with where my submission is at. Rather than this being written purely for the enjoyment of the readers (in an entertainment sense), it was written more to be implemented into RPGs for DM's. Good work with the Memory Moths sub too though. I see what style you were talking about.

Anyways,
Thank you for re-reading and re-commenting Dossta. I really appreciate it.

Link Backs

On route from Geli to Nekrass the characters meet a peasant boy on the road. He's wandering in the direction from which they've just come. If this seems a little bit incongruous, they may wish to ask him a few questions. He's perfectly willing to talk: he's called Lamish and he's run away because he knows he is the heir to the throne of Geli and his parents didn't believe him. How far is his home? About five weeks walk from here. How much has he eaten? Nothing. Has he drunk? Only from the filthy roadside ditches. In short, it's a wonder he is still alive. And yet he seems perfectly healthy.

Is he a thief, waiting for travellers to trick? Is he lying because there's something more sinister under all of this? Is he telling the truth? And anyway, what should the characters do? Do you take him to Geli? Do you try to find his parents? Or leave him to make his own way?